What Survives: The Seven Factors of Corporate Longevity
Corporate longevity is the exception, not the rule. The median publicly traded US company lasts only about a decade, and size offers no protection.
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The Same Bet Twice: How Corning Cut the Budget and Kept the Capability
The business that almost destroyed Corning in 2001 is now its largest again. What saved it was not research spending, which it cut by 45%, but where it moved the scientists.
Invented Here, Captured Elsewhere: The Difference Between Inventing and Profiting.
Xerox invented the personal computer and earned almost nothing from it. Filings from eight companies show why: value goes to whoever owns what the invention needs, not who spends most on R&D.
The Partners: How Xerox Fumbled and Fujifilm Reinvented.
Xerox invented the future and lost it; Fujifilm lost its core and rebuilt. Two partners, two books.
Shimano: Freewheeling
He chose the freewheel—not the frame, wheel or saddle—the hardest component to manufacture well. The logic was simple: the most difficult part gives you the right to make everything around it. Quality, price and service became the founding creed.